620
Conclusions: Limitations and Constraints
623.4
MAINTENANCE AND HOUSEKEEPING
Although the basic design of the building components has been
specifically directed at the alleviation of various maintenance and
housekeeping problems, a perfect solution has not yet been achieved.
Three conditions in particular should be noted. First, the decentralization
of air-handling equipment will require engineering personnel to travel
throughout the hospital to execute some of their routine maintenance
tasks. Second, the location of certain components in the service zone
accessible only horizontally via space with restricted headroom may in
some instances be less convenient to these personnel than direct access
from below or access to the equipment if it were located in the functional
zone. Third, surface mounting of services may not be as simple for
housekeeping purposes as is the case with services concealed within
partitions.
623.5
NEED FOR CARRY-THROUGH
The application of the principles of systems integration to the particular
problems of VA hospital construction has so far produced a hypothesis
and some suggestions on how it might be tested. However, no amount of
theoretical argument or cost-benefit analysis can prove in advance that
innovative design ideas, when implemented under field conditions, will in
fact meet the stated objectives in a completely satisfactory manner. The
principles must be continually applied through detailed design and
construction, the entire process carefully monitored, and the results fully
evaluated before the proposed system can claim specific improvements
over conventional methods. Furthermore, efficient implementation of a
long-range systems integration program will require the establishment of a
data base and an evaluation and feedback mechanism so that each
successive construction project can contribute a maximum of useful
information. (See Section 111.2.2 for a diagram of this process.)
Some components of the data base have already been developed to a
certain point for purposes of the systems integration study. (Volume Two.)
It is recommended that the VA develop these components further and
generate additional components. (See Section 632.) Particularly lacking
in the present data base is operating and alteration cost information on
existing hospitals suitable for cost-benefit evaluation of proposed designs.
(Section 631.2.2.)
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